US diplomats in hasty Yemen evacuation

11th February 2015, 0 comments

The United States, Britain and France moved to close their embassies in Yemen Wednesday over security fears, with the Americans destroying their mission's classified contents and abandoning vehicles at the airport.

The hasty Amrian evacuation came as thousands joined rival demonstrations over a Shiite militia takeover last week widely condemned as a coup.

Long on the front line of the war against Al-Qaeda, Yemen has descended into chaos since the militia, known as Huthis, seized Sanaa in September and ousted the government last week.

The United Nations has demanded the reinstatement of the Western-backed leader Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi -- who resigned last month and is under effective house arrest -- but its efforts to broker a deal have failed so far.

After weeks of internal deliberations and drawing down staff, Washington finally closed the embassy in Sanaa over the "deteriorating security situation," evacuating staff to Muscat late Tuesday on a private Omani jet.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki thanked Oman's sultan for his help as well as Qatar for efforts "to secure a swift departure and safe passage."

She said most of the staff were en route back to Washington from Oman Wednesday.

All the US Marines also left the country, taking commercial flights.

US officials refused to say how many people were evacuated, but there were said to be dozens of Marines in Sanaa -- a larger than usual contingent.